Zumiez Best Foot Forward: Minneapolis

Victors rise and fall everyday across America and today there would be three moving up. Out of the hundreds that skated in the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Am contest this summer, today revealed the ultimate outcome.

The five finalists were killing it with all the force that the Twin Cities could provide. Coming out on top were three rippers.
Visibly fatigued and coming through with shining colors was Jace Torkelson. Jace made it into third place with his madness and went home a happy man.
The second place trophy went to Cody Davis. Cody exhibited extreme consistency all through the day. It was no surprise to anyone’s eyes when Cody blasted into the finals and went home in second.
Coming in first place was Jack Olson. Jack killed it hard but still had more shredding to do because the national finals were coming up in just a few short hours. After the Minneapolis finals went down in such a big way, the TransWorld Best Trick fired up. We saw tricks like huge switch heels, switch tailslides 270 out and coming in with the trick of the day was Kevin Heger. Kevin busted a half-cab noseslide 270 out taking the best trick honors. Due to non-stop ripping all day, Kevin landed himself the Zumiez Destroyer Award as well.
The main event came upon us and the crowd was in full-effect. All the rippers from across the country were in play. Dudes like Weston Sparks, Cory Glick and Tom Wilkenson were out there shredding hard. We saw the type of maneuvers we have come to love from rippers Patrick Donivan and “The Working Man”” Dave Mull. When it came down to picking the finalists, the judges had to break it down to not five, but seven. There was just too much going on and these dudes were skating harder than we had seen all summer.
In the finals were Jack Olson, Julian Christianson, Dustin Blauvelt, Brendon Villanueva, Kevin Leidke and DaShawn Jordan. As the final ten minutes of the Best Foot Forward trip blasted on, the crowd went mad for Julian and his perfect switch heelflip over the entire hubba. DaShawn had flawless bigger flips down the double set. Kevin retained gnarly consistency with which he stomped seven or eight heavy hitting tricks in a row. Consistency was with Brendon as well with his attack of the handrail and stair set.
The outcome was a bit of a surprise. After taking the contest three years in a row, Julian Christianson rolled into second place with his switch 270 lips and superhuman switch tail slides.
Coming in third was Kevin Leidke. His persistence and amazing consistency was enough to earn him a spot on the podium.
For obvious reasons, the crowd favorite was hometown boy, Jack Olson. After skating in the invitational event, the Twin Cities finals and the preliminary round of the nationals, it’s almost unbelievable that Olson would have anything left to throw down for the finals. Not the case. Jack Olson was unstoppable all day with plenty of aggression and consistency and came out victorious. It was a truly amazing event for all who witnessed.
We’ll be seeing Jack, Julian and Kevin in Los Angeles at the Hometown Heroes Finals at X Games!